Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/444

 440 COW COWELL large and handsome edifice. There are four public school buildings, a high school building in course of erection, and an odd fellows 1 hall. In February, 1873, congress appropriated $130,- 000 for a post office and United States court building, which will be speedily constructed. There are 560 stores and shops, 8 large to- bacco factories, 21 cigar factories, 2 rolling mills producing sheet, bar, and railroad iron, and a third in course of construction, 4 distil- leries, 5 breweries, glass works, manufactories of hemp and silk, and several beef- and pork- packing establishments. Many of the inhabi- tants do business in Cincinnati, 12,000 per- sons passing over the bridge daily. There are four banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,750,000. The city is divided into nine wards, and is governed by a mayor and a com- mon council of two members from each ward. It is supplied with water by works on the Holly system, erected in 1871 at a cost of $430,- 000. The taxable property in 1845 amounted to $1,065,245, in 1860 to $6,843,287, and in 1872 to $11,467,325. The public schools con- sist of 1 high school, 12 grammar and 31 pri- mary schools, which in 1871 had 4 male and 43 female teachers, and an average attendance of 2,054. The city levies a tax of 2 mills on ,the dollar, in addition to the state tax of 2 mills, for school purposes. There are also 10 Roman Catholic schools and academies. The public library contains about 5,000 volumes. A weekly newspaper and a monthly periodical are published. The hospital of St. Elizabeth occupies a commodious building, with ample grounds adorned with shrubbery, in the centre of the city, and has a foundling asylum con- nected with it. The German orphan asylum is about 4 m. from Covington. These institu- tions are under the charge of the Catholic church. St. Joseph's priory of the Benedic- tine order is in Bush street, and St. Walburga's convent of Benedictine nuns in Twelfth street. The churches, 25 in number, are as follows: 3 Baptist, 1 Disciples', 1 Episcopal, 2 Evangeli- cal Reformed, 1 Lutheran, 6 Methodist, 2 Pres- byterian, 8 Roman Catholic, and 1 Welsh. The Evangelical, the Lutheran, one of the Methodist, and four of the Catholic churches are German. Two churches, a Baptist and a Methodist, are for colored people. Covington was laid out under an act of February, 1815, and was incorporated as a city in 1834. COW. See CATTLE. COW BIRD, or Cow Bunting, a bird of the ge- nus molothrus (M. pecoris, Swains.). In the genus the bill is short and stout, elevated at the base, and advancing on the forehead ; wings long and pointed, first and second quills the longest; tail moderate and nearly even. Of the few species, the above is the only one found in the United States ; it is about 8 inches long and 12 in alar extent; in the male the prevail- ing color is shining black, with a purplish and steel-blue gloss ; the head, neck, and anterior part of breast, light chocolate brown ; the fe- male is light olivaceous brown ; bill and feet black. It is found throughout the United States from the Atlantic to California, though proba- bly not on the Pacific coast; it frequents fields and farmyards, following cattle, sometimes picking ticks from their backs, and at others feeding on the seeds, worms, and insects con- tained in their dung; large Hocks migrate to the north in spring to breed, returning in au- tumn. The females have the habit of dropping their eggs, generally singly, into the nests of other smaller birds, as sparrows, warblers, and flycatchers ; in New England the summer yel- low bird's nest is most frequently selected. The eggs thus stealthily dropped are of about the same size as the true ones, and are more quick- ly hatched by the foster parents; of course, with this habit the cow birds do not pair, nor display the lasting attachment of ordinary birds. The European cuckoo has the same habit of abandoning her progeny to the care of strangers ; but this is the more remarkable in the cow bird, as belonging to a family pro- verbial for the ingenuity with which their nests are constructed. If the cow bird's egg Cow Bird (Molothrus pecoris). be deposited in a newly finished but empty nest, the makers generally abandon it ; if in a nest already containing eggs, it is usually al- lowed to remain, though the makers are prob- ably often aware of the intrusion. The yellow bird has a way of disposing of the strange egg which will be noticed under that title. The egg is pale grayish blue, with amber-brown dots and streaks, and the young is hatched in about a fortnight, the other eggs remaining un- hatched ; the intruder is fed by the foster pa- rents, to the neglect of their own eggs, which, when the contained embryo has perished, are cast from the nest; and it is cared for long after it has left the nest. This species has no song, but a low muttering chuckle. The flesh is esteemed as food, and many are shot for this purpose in the southern states. They roost among the reeds in swampy places, and feed in immense flocks, often in company with the red-winged blackbird and other troopials. COWELL, John, an English civilian, born at Ernsborough, Devonshire, in 1554, died in Cam- bridge, Oct. 11, 1611. He was educated at